Endorsement: For president - Mitt Romney

From the start - and we're talking two-plus years ago - this presidential race was more about who not to elect than it was about who was most qualified for the White House.

The bumper sticker "Defeat Obama" laid it all out. Who knows, perhaps that's how America will pick the leader of the free world from this point forward, with the default winner being the candidate we dislike the least.

Four years ago, we stood behind then Sen. Barack Obama. America was looking for hope after the wars and economic flailing during George W. Bush's time. Obama made hope his campaign slogan and swept the nation up his charisma. He even turned Indiana into a blue state, for heaven's sake.

But much of that enthusiasm, whether crushed under the weight of the job or of the expectations or of an economy that has been slow to rebound, has faded.

At this point in a re-election bid, armed with a story of accomplishment, an incumbent should be prepared to ease into a second term. But even Obama must sense that compelling story isn't there.

Instead, Obama has spent the campaign pointing out, ad nauseum, how GOP challenger Mitt Romney is rich, how there are few details in his tax plan and how his plan to put millions of people back to work isn't fleshed out for public consumption. All true.

But here's the rub: Obama has had four years. What improvements he's overseen are largely incremental. And when Obama is pressed on the matter, Americans get the same lecture about the mess he inherited from President Bush.

That mess? All true, too. But at some point there has to be accountability for where we are as a nation and where we're going. Instead, lectures become excuses. And the excuses wear thin. Eventually, Obama's words, meant for Romney, blow back: Where's the plan? Where does this White House administration see America in four years?

In all of that campaigning, that plan didn't emerge.

Romney isn't the most comfortable, automatic alternative. The former Massachusetts governor has played his cards well enough to still be playing in November, going from far-right crusader to centrist and everywhere in between since the Republican primaries. The running joke this Halloween is that the costume stores stock Romney masks; it's up to you to decide which version. The real Romney hasn't really settled into one, yet.

That said, we've watched Obama in the job. It's become increasingly clear that, while he can dish out blame for recalcitrant factions on the other side of the aisle, he either doesn't have the clout or the willingness to work the halls to recruit allies in Congress. He could have learned a thing or two from Bill Clinton in that regard, if he'd reached out before the heat of the campaign. He spent so much time and political capital to pass a health care bill - one that actually wasn't his, but came to bear his name - at the expense of focus on the serious business of improving the economy. Perhaps if Obama was laser focused on managing the stimulus and other job creation efforts in his first two years, unemployment would be lower and the president would have a smoother road to a second term.

We don't believe Obama is some sort of closet socialist. We don't think he's leading the country toward its doom, as the Defeat Obama forces would have you believe. And we don't think he's a failure in office.

We just don't believe he's earned another four years.

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Endorsement: For president - Mitt Romney

Our take: Barack Obama hasn't earned another four years in the White House.